प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

IX] FEMALE EDUCATION 221 dowager queens and princesses, who used to take active part in the administration of their kingdoms. Nayanikā of the Andhra dynasty (c. 150 B. C.) and Prabhāvatīguptā of the Vākāṭaka dynasty (c. 390 A.D.) were governing extensive kingdoms during the minority of their sons. The queen of Masaga directed the defence of her capital against Alexander the Great after the death of her husband. Several queens of Kashmir have fought on the battlefield,¹ and some of them like Sugandhā and Diddā have ruled as regnant queens. In the Chālukya dynasty several queens and ladies of the royal family like Mailādevī, Akkādevī, Kunkumadevī and Lakshmīdevī are known to have taken active part in the administration of the empire as governors of towns and districts.² It is therefore quite obvious that steps must have been taken in royal families in ancient India to give proper training to princesses in order to make them fit to carry on the administration in the case of emergency, or even in normal times in order to help their husbands. The training was both administrative and military. Administrative training was of course given when they had become old enough to take part in the governance of the kingdom, but military training was imparted during their adolescence. They were trained fairly well in the use of arms; they could also ride and swim. The son of queen Vijayamahādevī was called Gaṅgadatta, because the mother used to swim about in the Ganges, owing to a strong desire to do so during pregnancy.³ In ordinary Kshatriya families also some military training seems to have been imparted to the lady

1. Rājataraṅgiṇī, VII, 905, 909, 981; VIII, 1187-9.
2. I. A., IX p. 274, XVIII p. 37
3. E. C., VII, Shimoga No. 4, dated 1122 A.D.